Top deck rejig at Samsung Mobiles to counter Chinese competition

Admin| Mar 25, 2017 - 12:56 AM
India

KOLKATA: Samsung has rejigged roles of senior executives for its mobile phone business to effectively counter Chinese competition as the country’s largest handset maker faces the threat of losing market share, latest data from Counterpoint Research showed.

The Korean electronics giant has promoted Mohandeep Singh as senior vice-­president for the mobile phone business where he has become in­charge of sales and retail marketing responsible for all major operations for the business.

Samsung has also brought back Asim Warsi to the cellphone arm after he was given responsibility for creating the online product portfolio and product plans for all categories last year.

Warsi, a senior vice president, will now head the mobile business product marketing team which plans all new launches and activations around it, three senior industry executives said.

Manu Sharma, who used to head product marketing at Samsung’s mobile business as vice president, is now heading sales for North and East. These changes will be announced in next few days.

Samsung India confirmed the change in roles of its senior executives and a company spokesman said Samsung takes pride in its mobile leadership team that led the company to record sales in India last year. “Mohandeep Singh has de facto become the Indian chief for Samsung’s mobile business, filling a role which was left vacant for almost three years since erstwhile chief Vineet Taneja exited. A Korean expat of course will continue to lead. Singh will be directly responsible for driving both revenue and marketing activities, while Warsi will focus on product planning, launch and activations,” said a industry executive.

Both Singh and Warsi are amongst a select club of Indian executives at the helm of Samsung India. Two other senior vice presidents, the highest level at which an Indian executive can climb at Samsung, include Ranjivjit Singh who is the chief marketing officer and Anuj Jain who is the chief innovation officer.